Excellent Quality Photo Printer
Written: Jul 18 '06
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Pros: Inexpensive ink tanks, great quality images
Cons: big footprint, kind of heavy
The Bottom Line: If you're tired of replacing $40 ink tanks when only one color is empty, you need this printer.
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| buggman's Full Review: Canon i860 InkJet Photo Printer |
This is an absolutely GREAT printer.
The Canon i860 features 5 ink tanks, black bci-3ebk, black bci-6bk, yellow bci-6y, red bci-6m and blue bci-6c.
Unlike most other printers that feature a single color ink cartridge and a single black ink cartridge, the Canon features 5 individual ink tanks. If you run out of red, you only need to replace the red, likewise with black, blue or yellow.
This makes this printer VERY affordable when it comes time to replace ink.
Canon's brand of ink is relatively inexpensive at about $10 each. I have even used generic brand ink tanks with excellent results. I have also tried those ink refill kits (refilling the original Canon ink tanks) with very good results as well.
The printer is a little large in its footprint at about 17” wide x about 14” deep (it’s a little deeper when you extend the front paper trays), but considering what it does; size is a small tradeoff for quality. Paper is loaded from the top/back of the printer and exits through the front/bottom. Both the top & front trays fold up when not needed, and I’ve found that folding them up when not in use keeps the printer cleaner – no dust can get in.
It’s pretty heavy too; I’d guess about 14 pounds. If you’re looking for a little printer to pack around from place to place, this probably isn’t the best option.
Color printing is very crisp and colors are always bright and vivid. Using Canon's print manager you can add special print options that further enhance pictures. Such as VIVID, IMAGE OPTIMIZER, PHOTO NOISE REDUCTION and more.
There are also several media options to choose from, like plain paper, matte photo paper, glossy photo paper, glossy photo paper pro, etc. I have found the highest glossy photo setting with image optimizer & vivid photo options produce near print quality when using glossy photo paper.
(You can even purchase PHOTO specific ink tanks that are supposed to be even better photo quality, although I haven't used the PHOTO ink tanks. I’m happy with the standard ink tanks and the high quality they produce.)
* * Borderless Printing! You can print an 8.5" x 11" page with nearly 100% coverage. Why would you need borderless printing?? If you have a digital camera image of someone special like Grandma, and you don’t want to go to the photo place and wait all day for an 8” x 10” print (not to mention you’ll pay a lot more there) you can simply edit and print your image right from your living room (or wherever your computer happens to be) in NEAR print quality.
Connectivity is via USB 2.0 or parallel port. I prefer USB 2.0 for a little quicker speed, and because most new (2005 and up) computers don’t even have a parallel printer port anymore.
While printing, you can hardly hear the printer.
SPEED: This printer is quick!
For black only text printing at 50% page coverage, you can expect about 12 to 15 pages per minute. High quality photo color glossy prints are a bit slower, but well worth the wait.
I received a special 4” x 6” photo paper tray with my printer (although I never used it) which allows those special 4” x 6” photo paper packs to slide right in and print just like regular paper feeds in the normal paper port.
There are no more trips to the 1hr photo shop for me! I take all of my pictures with my digital Canon camera, upload & edit on my PC and print out on Photo paper with my i860. Never another bad picture or a picture of my thumb again.
It features an onboard connection for Canon's picta bridge where you can print directly from a Camera or media card. I've never used the picta bridge connections so I can't comment on how well it may or may not work.
When I purchased my printer (just days after it hit the market) I paid about $199, but they can be found for much less today.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
buggman
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Reviews written: 108
Trusted by: 1 member
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